


Like a River

by Jinmukang



Series: Genderfluid (Wild) [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen, Genderfluid Link (Legend of Zelda), Hurt/Comfort, LGBTQ Themes, More comfort than hurt, Self-Discovery, for once, it's a somewhat positive story with angst sprinkled in here and there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 19:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20031388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinmukang/pseuds/Jinmukang
Summary: When he wakes up from the shrine of resurrection, Link notices thathedoesn’t always feel like ahe. Link learns to be okay with that.





	Like a River

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: I guess I should make it known that I identify as the gender I was born as, this was largely requested and I really wanted to write it. I tried to be as factually correct and respectful as I could, but if anything seems super super wrong and incorrect to anyone genderfluid reading this, please kindly let me know via ask or pm and I will make sure I correct it.
> 
> Warnings: slight dysphoria, angst. I tried to make this an overly positive story, focusing more on the self discovery than the angst. Please enjoy. :)
> 
> (Titled on Tumblr as "Wild").

He’d been this way… for as long as he could remember. It wasn’t like he knew the words for it or what to do about it the moment he first opened his eyes in the Shrine of Resurrection, but from day one he’d sometimes fell… off. Off like his very skin was wrong, and it would give him a sick feeling down to his gut for no reason at all, and he’d know nothing to do about it; but then a day or a few hours would pass and he’d feel normal again, comfortable in his own body. 

The first month he was on the great plains and the entire time he switched between those feelings. Normal, and off. As he continued onward, he began to notice that the off days were sometimes not the same, sometimes he’d feel it in his chest other days in his stomach. It was an urgency, telling him he needed to do something, but he had no idea what to do. 

He never told the old man, and he never thought too much into it until he left the plains, stepping into the vast land of Hyrule for the first time, never realized what the feelings were until he saw a woman for the first time. 

A traveling brother and sister getting attacked by some Bokoblins. He rescued them with no hesitation and introduced himself after, excited to meet actual people—he was almost afraid there were no people and he would be completely alone in his journey. What happened next was while he spoke with the brother about directions to Kakariko, his eyes trailed over towards the sister. Right at that moment, something stirred in his chest and without any warning his mouth opened in an “O”. 

That’s it. That’s what the weird feeling is. Looking at her, in that moment, his features felt sharp, his hair too messy, his hips too skinny and even his butt and chest seemed too flat. He doesn’t understand why, but that was it. It has to be. Something about his brain, his body, or his very soul just wanted to be like her for a few hours or a day. He wondered how he could do that.

The brother yelled at him, ripping him out from his epiphany, scolding him for making googly eyes at his sister, and the sister laughed and gently calmed him down, saying Link meant nothing of it. He couldn’t help but watch as her wrists moved, she talked with her arms and it was graceful, joints bending gently and slowly instead of jerky and to the point like her brother as he threw his arms up angrily. She took a step forward and Link copied how she did it, smoothly, walking with a slight tilt to her hip, without even thinking as he stepped towards the brother to explain that it wasn’t what it looked like. The moment he opened his mouth and said the first word, he realized that that’s wrong too. He stopped, cleared his throat, and raised his voice a bit. Not perfect… but it felt better. 

Thankfully, the brother deflated rather quickly and didn’t try to start any arguments or fights. Turned out he’s just very protective. The sister insisted that she’ll be fine and that she can take care of herself, and Wild agreed.

“She’s going to kill me someday,” the brother said, and Link stopped in his tracks because it’s the first time he’d ever heard that word. Right now… she wanted it to apply to herself. 

She thanked them and took a step back, about to head back to that pathway strewn with ruins and monsters, and as she walked back, she noticed the brother lift his entire arm to wave goodbye, while the sister lifted her arm up and simply tilted her hand back and forth. Link copied her, and it felt right. 

The rest of the evening, she moved with a gracefulness she never thought about before. Something changed in her and it felt so very correct and okay that the pain in her chest was hardly recognizable, not even after she left the ruins and began her journey to the towering twin peaks before her. 

She saw travelers along the way, and she’ll walk with a slight tilt and she’ll wave with her wrist and talk with a bit more gentleness and pitch than what she thought was normal back at the plains. She noticed that some of the female travelers all had a slight difference to their style of clothes while compared to the men, and she thought about that a lot, thinking of how that applied to her, all the way to the first stable. 

She was exhausted by then, so she didn’t think too much about it, in fact, she was thinking about close to nothing the moment her head hit the pillow.

-o-o-o-o-

When Link woke up, he felt different again. He thought that if he did what he did yesterday, he’d feel okay again. However, it didn’t feel right. Raising his voice, swaying his hips, brushing his dirty hair out, none of it worked. The feeling remained as he finally gave up, choosing to just act how he normally would and not put on an effort to act like a woman. Though… he didn’t want to be male either. 

Whatever the case, he had limited sunlight, and he had to push this new predicament to the side as he finally caught a horse, named it Harold, and left his way towards Kakariko. 

He found that this new feeling didn’t last as long as the one from last night. The urge to act more like a woman lasted the entire day, while that one left by the time he was heading up the last stretch of hill towards Kakariko. He forgot all about it by the time he returned the maracas to Hestu. He was back to feeling comfortable in his skin, and it didn’t even bother him when Hestu referred to him as “Mr Hero”. It felt right in that moment. 

It felt right the rest of the day, all the way until he found himself giving rupees to the village inn and once again, settling down for a good night’s rest.

-o-o-o-o-

The next few weeks he spent traveling towards Hateno to fix his camera, and those weeks were filled with a mix of three feeling, two he knew what to do about, the third was a bit harder. Luckily, the third one didn’t come around that often, and when it did it only lasted a few hours until it switched back to one of the others. 

The first one was easy, it’s what he was born as. Or… what he’s pretty sure he was born as, with just a few months memory but with a body more than a dozen years old it’s sort of hard to tell. Anyway, it’s when he feels content as a male. It’s the one that sticks around most, lasts the longest too, which is good. It’s the easiest to be. The second one is a tad bit harder but he’s getting used to it. It’s when he refers to himself as “she/her” and just naturally feels better in his skin when he switches up his habits to be more woman-like. On days like that he—or in that time it would be _she_—would just copy what other women around her do. It lasts just shorter, if not the same amount, as the days when he’s male.

The last one… he was still trying to figure out. He doesn’t feel comfortable doing either woman things or male things. He’s tried going by she, or he, tried brushing his hair, tried wearing less form fitting shirts (like what he did when he’s a she… on those days it’s extremely uncomfortable to show off a flat chest…), tried to be overly _manly_, and none of it worked. He hoped that someday he’d figure out. Thankfully that last feeling never lasts long.

When he—yes he was definitely a “he"—finally stepped into Hateno, he decided to explore a little bit first. He ran into a kid who found something neat just off the main road of the town, and one thing led to another and now he knew of the existence of some sort of anti-Hylia shrine that can take, morph, and return his strength and his energy for a suspiciously steal of a price. Whatever the case, he will not be going to that again unless he absolutely needed to. If fact, he should probably find a way to destroy it. 

Anyway, after he got done with _that_, he turned around and stopped before he could even take a step. Atop the hill… was a very peculiar looking building. He didn’t need any of his previous memories to know that a house with a flat, square design was very uncommon not only in Hateno, but for probably all of Hylia.

So he ran up to it.

Naturally.

There were multiple structures of the same kind around the first building he saw, built just out of the main section of the town to either stand out or because the style wasn’t welcome in the middle of civilization. Maybe a bit of both. 

He spent a few minutes gaping at these very strange buildings before he caught sight of a well trod yet overgrown path leading further out of the town. Without thinking much about it, he decided to follow after that trail even though there was a shrine literally just to his left and that should take priority, but with Link being, well, _Link_… he’d rather explore just a bit longer before he had to suffer the headache of another pointless puzzle.

Almost immediately he caught sight of a very old and very cozy looking cabin. It’s style was exactly like the rest of the town, except for it’s missing bricks, collapsed chimney, missing door, and shattered shingles. It looked… like it belonged to something old, something unwanted, something far away.

He wanted it. 

He picked up his pace, a rush of excitement filling his chest and fueling his limbs. He ran over a beautiful bridge over an equally beautiful stream that appeared to lead to a pond he hadn’t noticed before which seemed to settle right next to where that evil statue thing was. In all a few moments, he was standing there, looking at the full magnificence that is the ran down and withered building. 

Already, visions of fixed up structures, a painted door, a sign with his name, and a fully furnished kitchen and living room filled his mind. He took a step forward, heard a crash, and whipped his neck over to where a rather large man with the biggest hair-do he’d ever seen was smashing a double headed hammer into the wall of that beautiful house, making an already big hole bigger. 

"H-hey!” He squawked.

And, well, the next thing he knew his was sitting around the campfire with Bolson, Karson, and Hudson talking about buying a home. Turned out, Bolson liked him, and was willing to lower the whopping price of 50k rupees down to 3k and 30 bundles of wood. Doable. He’d just have to sell his hoard to opals, topaz, amber, and rubies to reach that goal money wise. Wood wise… he’ll probably have to find an ax of some sort that he won’t mind shattering to chop down that much wood. It probably wouldn’t be acceptable to bomb the whole forest outside the peaceful town. He’d like to stay on the good side of the masses thank you very much.

After that was all sorted out, Link had a minute to truly look at the men in front of him. Hudson looked like a genuine gentle giant, he spoke with a soft voice and his features seemed to be in a permanent state of relaxed and non threatening. Karson definitely acted and looked the part of an energetic side kick towards Bolson, always ready and rearing to begin any task asked of him, a grin practically plastered onto his face. Now… Bolson confused Link. Everything about him was completely different to what Link had ever seen. He wore brightly colored clothes, raised his voice a few notes higher as he spoke, and walked with a sassy bounce to his step that Link definitely hadn’t seen on another person, let alone another man.

Right then, the thought occurred to Link… that maybe Bolson is like him. Maybe… right now Bolson called himself… herself?

He’d have to work up the courage and ask Bolson about it later…. when they’re alone.

“Thank you for letting me have a shot at buying the house,” Link said, standing up and holding out his hand for a shake. It was easy to talk to them, proof of that was that that sentence had been the longest he’d spoken since he had woken up. “You are all very kind.”

Bolson held out his hand, his wrist flicking smoothly and practiced, and grabbed hold of Link’s hand, shaking with a gentle bounce. “Of course,” he said, smiling.

-o-o-o-o-

“Are you a woman?” Link’s blurted out. It’d been a week. She… he… it was that strange feeling again… _he_ decided to stay over at Hateno for awhile before traveling back to Kakariko. He did all that he needed to, he fixed his camera, got some pretty cool looking pictures that ping a little bit of familiarity within him, and was even able to upgrade his bombs. He would have left earlier, but he used the excuses of gathering bundles of wood and crickets to stay longer. That would be what he told Impa anyway; that he stayed longer because he had to help some people out. Not because he was delaying asking a question that shouldn’t be so scary to ask. He could have left ages ago, he probably should have, but he knew that if he didn’t ask… he’d regret it.

Bolson looked up from where he’s pounding nails into the wooden floor of Link’s house with wide eyes. Hudson was out working on the roof while Karson was sent to paint the outside walls, and with Link leaving the next day… this may be the only opportunity he had to ask the question privately. It’s not very often that Bolson was without Karson.

The surprised… almost shocked look on Bolson’s face made Link instantly regret everything. He shouldn’t have asked. He should have kept his big mouth shut. 

He knew he was different. At first it felt normal, but he’d interacted with enough people for long enough to know that males are males and females are females. He hadn’t seen one person, not in Kakariko, not in Hateno, not at the stables or on the trail, suddenly refer to themselves as anything different than what they _were_.

It was only a matter of time that the feeling of… difference and… _brokenness _sunk it’s claws into his gut.

And it’s clear now that whatever this was, it wasn’t normal. Link was the only one feeling different with his genders.

He’s about to apologise, about to ask Bolson to forget it before Bolson can think about how… unnatural Link really was. But then, something genuine flashed across Bolson’s face as he pushed himself up. Link remained speechless, afraid, even as Bolson placed a hesitant yet gentle and un-threatening hand on Link’s shoulder.

“Do you think I look like a woman?”

It wasn’t sarcastic, or angry, like Link expected it to be. He knew what it’s like for someone to get your gender wrong. He got it every time a found a korok while he was actually a she and they call her “Mr Hero”. She got it every time when someone said “man” at the end of their sentence, referring to her. She wondered why they do that, why can’t they just see that sometimes things that are male just don’t apply to her.

It wasn’t sarcastic or angry, it was curious… and worried. 

“I- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

“Link, darling, please answer me.”

Link looked Bolson in they eyes and he had to fight down a choking noise. He shouldn’t have said anything. He should have left it alone. “I-no… I just thought…”

“You thought because of the way I dress and speak that I don’t think myself male. Is that correct, darling?" 

"I’m sorry…”

Bolson sighed and let go of Links shoulder before he slowly sank to the floor. “Sit with me,” he said, patting the spot next to him. Link swallowed and lowered himself down with as much enthusiasm Purah would have when giving away something for free. He looked down. “Gender,” Bolson started and Link forced himself to look up at him, Bolson was returning the gaze but was giving nothing away, “gender is expressed in many different ways, honey. I, for example, do identity with my birth gender, but the feminine things interest me greatly. I choose to express myself with traditionally womanly ways and manors, but I’ve never considered myself apart of that gender. Does that make sense?”

“Yes…”

“Good. Now, you can explain to me what’s going on in your cute little head.”

Link… wanted to tell him, Bolson had just shared something personal, but… he didn’t understand it himself. How could he share his feelings with the other man when he didn’t even know how to explain it? He hated how he had spent the last few months trying to explore his feelings and then when asked about them… he freezes up. Why… did he feel ashamed of it? Why did he feel like this was something to hide and to only practice when alone? 

He wanted to wave his hand and say it was nothing, that he was just curious, but the way Bolson was looking at him… it made him feel like he already knew what was going on in Link’s head and he just wanted him to admit it.

Link won’t be able to back out of this. He had a week to get to know Bolson, and if there’s one thing he knew for sure, it’s that Bolson will not let Link leave the conversation with lies. 

“Sometimes…” he… no she. It’s she now. The weird feeling was gone, gone so fast, and now she knew that it’s she for sure. Or it felt like it should be. Right now… she didn’t feel that great. “Sometimes…” her voice was naturally higher, she folded her arms across her stomach, fighting off nausea, how can she say it? How can she tell something so personal and strange and uncommon. Goddesses, she feels more scared now than she had the first time she ran into a Yiga soldier.

Rip it off. Rip it off, take the consequences, just _spit it out_.

“Sometimes I don’t feel like a man,” she whispered, her eyes closed, her stomach doing somersaults, her heart pounding so hard in her ears. She can feel something building up behind the bridge of her nose, a warm pressure. “And- and I don’t always know what to do about it, but it’s been going on since… for as long as I can remember. I just… I’m just sometimes……" 

Her chest shuttered and she curled up, clutching onto herself like she would fall apart. She can’t look at Bolson. She can’t see the shock, the surprise, the regret, the anger, she had never told anyone, but it’s too strange to gain a good reaction to it. 

Then, a hand placed into her own. "What are you now, sweetheart?” Link shook her head and curled up tighter, trying to close herself off in any way she could. “Are you a woman?" 

A sob tore through her throat and the next thing she knew, she was wrapped up in a pair of strong, supportive, gentle arms. Her arms stayed wrapped around herself, she remained curled up, eyes closed, head bowed, even as Bolson pushed her into his chest and whispered words quietly. "It’s okay,” he said, and she wanted to push him away and scream at him that it wasn’t okay, but all she could do was let another sob claw its way out.

It stayed that way… for a long time. In all honesty, when Link finally got ahold of herself, she was surprised that Karson and Hudson hadn’t walked in to see what the fuss was all about get. 

“I’m not angry with you, Link,” Bolson said, “I just want to understand. Can you talk with me or do you want to wait and try again when you feel ready?”

He gave Link an option. An option to get away and forget about it and… and she didn’t want to do that. 

“I think…” she whispered, “I think I want to talk.”

“There is nothing wrong with you,” Bolson said, taking the answer as an invitation to continue. “People live in an illusion that gender is black and white, when in fact that is not so. There are grays, and there are all the colors of the rainbow. The world isn’t black and white, so why should we be? Whatever you’re feeling, whatever you are, you are normal, and you are not broken.”

Link nodded, slowly reaching up to wipe at her eyes.

“Do you understand?" 

"I…” she sucks in a breath. “I will.”

Bolson nodded, looking like he knew he did a good job, but there was something far away in his eyes, something sad and… from experience.

“Just be yourself, no matter what. If you’re male, female, a mix of both or neither of them, just be yourself. You’ll be happier that way, and people who don’t see that don’t deserve to know you.”

“Okay…”

-o-o-o-o-

Link decided to grow his hair after that. Something resonated with him with that conversation. Maybe the ending when Bolson mentioned that he can be a mixture of the two genders, or maybe neither at all. Whatever the case, he decided that during the short period of times where he would try to do both “feminine” and “masculine” things, he just didn’t feel right. So maybe… maybe if he tried out being neither of them, it would be as good as feeling as when he first called himself “she”. 

The idea of being formless, unrecognizable to either genders… was exciting. 

Growing his hair was the first step towards that. 

The next day before he left back to Kakariko, Bolson took him to the Kochi Dye shop, not to dye any clothes but to buy some already colored scraps of fabrics. He said the best way for himself to express himself is to wear fun and exciting colors that represent who he is, and that maybe Link should try it out. They bought three scraps, a finger’s width and about as long as his forearm, in three separate colors. 

“This one is when you feel feminine,” Bolson said when they were alone, it dyed a bright pink and it had a simple, little white diamond design on it. At the time, Link was still a woman, so Bolson immediately tied it around Link’s wrist. “This one is when you feel masculine,” a light blue one, same dimensions but designed with dark red swirls, he placed it in Link’s hand. “And this last one is for that pesky third emotion.”

It was the hardest for them to pick out. Link didn’t like the idea of assigning colors to gender, but Bolson insisted he try it for just a little while, until he figured himself out further. They already knew that pink was traditionally womanly, and blue was traditionally manly, but for an unknown feeling, and unknown emotion, an unknown _gender_, that was harder to choose out. “What color do you feel during those times?” Bolson had asked. 

The color he felt was white.

Not a boring white. The fabric in Bolson’s hand was white but also designed with star designs of every color, it was an expensive piece of fabric, a complicated work so colorful and blank at the same time. Yeah, Link definitely felt like that.

The white one was placed in his hands.

Now, the moment he materialized outside Kakariko with the To'loh Naeg Shrine behind him, the pink fabric was untied from his wrist and he replaced it with the blue. It felt so simple, a proof that he had changed in that moment. 

Physical. Not in his mind. Real. _Valid_.

-o-o-o-o-

The only acknowledgement to his new accessory was when Impa gave him a slightly confused look when she happened to look upon the blue scrap of fabric. She didn’t say anything on it. Link didn’t say anything on it. She just nodded herself, as if the fabric was nothing new. He wondered if she would react the same way to the pink or the white, but he didn’t feel quite ready to address that with her.

Apparently, by all evidence, she knew Link from a hundred years ago. He could easily ask her a question that had been eating at him for so long, but at the same time he wasn’t sure if he could take the answer. Was he always like this? Did the hero he had to live up to do this? Did he change his colors? Or was this… something new. Something… different.

He didn’t know if he could take any answer. He didn’t ask. She didn’t pry. 

After a nights rest and a lot of cooking and playing hide and go seek, she wrapped the pink fabric around her wrist and tightened the strap of her travel bag, making her way towards the uppermost right dot on his Sheikah Slate, showing the location of a Divine Beast. She’s told it’s past the Lanayru Mountain and Wetlands, at a place called the “Zora’s Domain”. It’s closest, and apparently there’s a stable along the way so she could grab Harold and get there even quicker. She’s hoping she can stumble upon a few shrines and maybe find some koroks along the way.

Impa said that she should find memories with the fixed camera option, but in all honesty Link would rather not for now.

She waved goodbye to the woman always at the entrance of the village and went on her way, a bounce to her step.

-o-o-o-o-

Sidon was one of the most… interesting people she’d ever met. He seemed totally unaffected by the harsh realities of their world. Not unaffected in the sense that he’s ignoring everything, but in the sense that he knew things sucked, he knew his domain was close to flooding and was surrounded by enemies, but he didn’t let it put a hamper on him, he didn’t let it make him a hard, angry person. 

No, instead he chose to smile more, compliment more, encourage all the time. Link’s only known him for a few hours, but she already knew that without the constant, _constant_, encouragement and shouts of praise and affection, she would probably have turned around on that monster infested road to find something easier to do.

But she made it.

Instead of heading up directly to the King’s room, she instead explored a little bit, wanting to know the layout of the extremely interesting and unique city, wanting to talk to every Zora, even the elders who seemed to dislike her quite a bit, but instead of being hurt by that, she kept Sidon’s words in her heart and continued onward, vowing to prove herself and show that she would never lead a person, especially someone who sounded so nice and beautiful like Mipha, to their death.

She stepped inside the Coral Reef general store pretty late in her exploration, but the encounter she had in there changed everything.

A Goron. That is what… he… she… Um… he… he called himself. Link had conversations with him, stuff about Death Mountain and eating rocks, total normal subjects, but the entire time it boggled her mind how she just couldn’t figure out if Reagah was a boy or girl. It wasn’t like she needed to know, she just was curious, she hadn’t met anyone yet besides Bolson who she couldn’t instantly recognize the gender of. 

“This is probably going to sound offensive,” she said slowly, keeping her expression open and careful, “but are you a girl or a boy?" 

She didn’t expect the laugh. She expected so many other things, but not a full on belly laugh. 

"An understandable question!” Reagah said after he’d finished belting out. He wiped a tear from his eye, smiling widely. “I suppose I would be a boy. All Gorons have the same gender, you see. Long ago, our people adopted the pronouns for males because it seemed most other species recognized us as all males, so we went by that to keep confusion down.”

“I- I see. So… what did you call yourselves before?”

Reagah hummed, putting on a thoughtful look as he reached up and scratched his chin. “It was long, long ago. We’ve always been calling ourselves by "he"… but I suppose it used to be just "them”.“

Something stirred in Link’s gut, but she couldn’t dwell very long on it because she thought she heard Sidon calling her name. She thanked Reagah for being so kind and then walked out, ignoring the glare the elder Zora in the same room was giving her.

Before she traveled up towards where Sidon was waiting for her, she pulled out the white cloth with beautiful rainbow stars and ran it through her fingers. 

"Them,” she whispered, trying out the word. Something stirred in her gut again, something warm, nice, _good_.

It felt good.

And for the first time, she looked forward to that third feeling. 

-o-o-o-o-

The memory came against her will. Caught her off guard. She went down to help Sidon calm Muzu down after the temper tantrum he threw, and when he looked upon her face, she blinked and she suddenly wasn’t there anymore, but sitting upon the trunk of a massive mechanical beast, watching what seemed to be a memory ravel itself out in front of her. 

She… he was there. Link, from a hundred years ago, his wound being mended by the Zora girl, Mipha, from that statue. She watched it play out before her, hearing Mipha’s words meant only for Link. She could see love, affection in her eyes and she instantly knew where Sidon got it from. 

When she returned to the present, she told Muzu and Sidon about her memory, her heart pounding in her chest. Sure, she was happy to remember such a lovely scene at the exact moment she needed it to get on slightly more even grounds with a Zora elder, but also… also because when she watched the memory, her eyes caught on something glinting in the sun. A beaded bracelet around Link’s wrist.

The beads were blue.

-o-o-o-o-

She wanted nothing more than to find more memories, to see if that blue bracelet was just an accessory or something like she’s doing now (and if they were actual color coded to her gender, where were they now?!). Unfortunately, the well being of the Zora’s Domain, Vah Ruta, was more important. 

She’s told to find shock arrows, and to find shock arrows she went, excitement and hope swirling around her entire being.

-o-o-o-o-

The first time Link used “they” was when the third feeling came over Link, switching she to that new word, as they were running away from the Lynel that finally spotted them as they grabbed their twentieth arrow lodged in a tree. 

They should have been terrified, should have been thinking nothing but swears and curses as the Lynel reached for it’s bow, but the moment the feeling came over them, all they could think about was how good it felt.

They. They. Thay. They. They. 

Over and over in their head that the sound of the bow being loaded with electricity, the impending doom that they could die right here, none of it was noticeable. They sprinted to the highest part of the mountain, to the point where they could practically see everything, even the giant reserve and the Divine Beast below, and without reading the sign, without thinking, they jumped, wind whipping at their hair as they whooped, the sound of an electrical explosion reaching just where they used to be a few moments before. 

They hit the water with an amazing splash, and they probably should have been in awe of the Divine Beast in front of them, but nothing could compare to the complete joy and happiness they felt within themselves at that moment. 

They. 

They did it.

-o-o-o-o-

He forgot to ask her. Mipha was right in front of him. He was dripping, wet, and coming down from an adrenaline high from fighting the blight, and she was standing right in front of him.

He forgot to ask her. 

He was in too much awe from seeing her spirit, he didn’t think to ask if he was always like this, if he was always switching between three different settings. 

He forgot to ask.

It wasn’t important in that moment. Calamity Ganon was important. 

He still wished he asked her.

-o-o-o-o-

With one Divine Beast on his side, and one corner of Hyrule safer than what it had been in a century, Link packed up his bags and waved goodbye to his new friends. He needed to continue, head to the next place, the next shrine, the next memory, the next adventure. He will return, but probably not for awhile.

From there, the adventure only got harder, but the happiness and contentment within himself never left, always stuck around, always felt so good. Link wore all three colors of fabric with pride and never again was one feared over the other. 

Granted, he still didn’t quite know what to do with his third gender besides “they” and growing out his hair, but he’s working on it.

Excited, he went to Death Mountain next. A terribly hard journey, but the cool fire resistant iron suit he got was… just amazing and so worth it. The most comfortable they’d ever been wearing that white scrap of fabric had been while he was in that suit. It felt so… blank. Like, no assumptions can be based upon it. 

It’s one of his favorite pieces of armor, sadly he doesn’t get to wear it often. 

He found that he absolutely loved the Gorons. One called Link a brother while he was actually a… sibling… And they corrected that Goron on instinct. Instantly, the Goron apologized and said “sibling” instead, without any kind of scene made or questions asked. 

Gorons are amazing. 

Life seemed to be going good, all the way until he gained his second memory.

He hadn’t been searching out the others. One looked like it was upon Death Mountain somewhere, but he was too hyped about getting out of the heat and into the village that he forgot about it. It was another statue that dragged him in, one made in the memory of Daruk.

He was so excited, but then he saw that his self from one hundred years ago was still wearing that blue bracelet, and his stomach dropped. He missed most of what was said after.

What if… what if that bracelet was something entirely different? What if it was a keepsake or a gift and it was just coincidentally blue? 

After the memory, he pretended to smile, pretended to be ready and raring to go and help stop Vah Rudania, but in reality, the small sliver of hope that Link just happened to identify as a male in both memories got smaller and smaller with each step away from the monument.

-o-o-o-o-

He didn’t ask. 

Daruk was right in front of him, and he remembered, but he couldn’t bring himself to. There wasn’t much time, he told himself, he couldn’t waste time with something like this.

When really… he was afraid.

So he didn’t ask.

-o-o-o-o-

She left Goron City much more down in the dumps than when she went up. She sluggishly dragged her feet down the path of the mountain, not even feeling that comfortable in the fire resistant armor anymore. She kicked rocks in front of her, making a mental plan of what to do next, where to go, when something caught her attention. 

She’s been here before. 

And not in the sense that she’s taking the same way down that she took up, but… the cliff to her right looked very familiar. 

On instinct, she pulled out her Sheikah Slate and flicked over to the photo album. Her finger tapped on one of pictures later in the album, but it was definitely why it felt so familiar here. 

She spent hours looking at this picture, just… _wondering _where it could be. If she should seek it out. If she should take that risk after the last major disappointment. 

It happened here. She took a step forward, hardly thinking about it, another and another until she was overlooking the entirety of Hyrule, the positioning of the castle, the land, the distant mountains, all of it had to be the same. She glanced down at the slate again, she could hardly feel her heartbeat, and she looked up and suddenly she wasn’t here.

She was watching a scene from one hundred years ago.

“That cut doesn’t look _too _bad, actually.”

The voice came before she saw who was speaking, but she knew who it was. The first voice she’d ever heard. 

Zelda.

"You’re fine for now.“

Zelda’s there, crouching next to Link, surrounded by slayed monsters, looking at something on his body. The cut, perhaps. Link from now purposely looked away from her past self, her breath was already taken by the wonder that is Zelda, she didn’t need to completely stop breathing when that stupid blue bracelet reared its ugly head.

"But you know, there’s a fine line between courage and recklessness.”

She was beautiful. Link had always assumed she was, but seeing her in person just exceeded all expectations and imagination. 

She talked some more, talked about how the monsters were getting stronger, attacking in greater numbers. Link’s past self said nothing, just sat quietly by as Zelda talked, as if he were already used to just letting her ramble. 

Then, Zelda stood up, patting the dust off her pants and looking down on Link. “-and, if that’s the case. I’m ready to expect the worst. We’ll need to make preparations as soon as possible.”

Link nodded, and moved to stand up next to her. The familiarity between the two baffled the present Link. So much, in fact, that she forgot to not look at her past self. 

The memory faded.

Her eyes opened. 

Her heart was so still. She couldn’t feel her fingers or her legs and she stumbled backwards like she had taken a blow. She landed on her rear, metal armor creaking and dust rising around her. She was lightheaded. 

“Pink,” she whispered. To herself. To the sky. To the volcano. To the Eldin Ostrich minding its own business a few meters behind her. “It… was PINK!”

-o-o-o-o-

By the time Link made it to the Rito village, they had gone through many more memories. It was exciting now, to see the bracelets on their past self’s wrist, to see the adventure, to find out more about the past to help them with their present. They’d notice that Zelda and Link were not always friends, and during those memories, the ones where Link was forced to be a good soldier, he’d always wear the blue bracelet, or no bracelet at all. But they could see it now, they could almost remember exactly what Link thought way back in those memories. The one where Zelda yelled at Link after following her to the shrine, Link was a boy, he was wearing the blue bracelet to match it. The one where Zelda asked Link about the Master Sword (which still presently needed to be found…), Link was neither. 

The memory that snuck up on Link back in the Zora’s Domain, Link was a girl. The one with Daruk, Link was a boy. 

They can tell now, without even having to search for the bracelet, but it still made them soar when they saw the white on Link’s wrist as he rode with Zelda up to the horse statue. Still made them want to pump their first and scream with pure joy when they saw the pink one on Mount Lanayru. Sure, some of these memories were so sad, but it’s proof. It’s important proof that Link had always been like this.

White while they ran away, when Zelda cried in their arms. No bracelet during the coronation ceremony, but the memory of a pink one hastily stuffed in her back pocket beforehand came back to her too. 

They only had a few memories left, and they couldn’t wait to see them. 

For now, their hair is longer. Reaching the middle of their back. On days when the pink fabric was worn, she liked to practice braiding it up and putting flowers in it when she had time. On blue days, a simple ponytail would do. On white… well, they liked to just let it out. Maybe braid a little bit down the side but that’s the most they’ll do. 

They found they like to wear the Hylian cloak on days when the white fabric was needed. The mountain climbing armor as well, it helped hide the subtle curves or lack thereof on his body and gave a more neutral look. 

They’re more confident now on correcting at least the koroks on the pronouns. He even taught one about the colors on their wrists and word seemed to spread among them, and before they called him “Mr Hero” he noticed that they’d start to study his wrist first, sometimes going with “Miss Hero” and “Friend Hero” instead. Hero seemed to be a gender neutral term to them, and Link didn’t mind. 

People were harder. It came up less often. They’ve told Beedle, Karson, Bolson, and Sidon, but that was about it. They didn’t know how confident they were on telling people that he didn’t talk to often, or people like Impa who knew him from way before. Link got the feeling only Zelda knew back then, they don’t know how or why she was the only one, but they feel like they need to actually talk with Zelda before they start telling the whole world. 

Closest friends first. 

Then everyone else.

At Revali’s Landing, Link was a girl.

Before they left after defeating Vah Medoh, they told Tebo. Tebo didn’t seem to care either way what Link was, he was just thankful for their friendship and for the safety of the Rito. Link can only hope the rest of the world felt that way once Calamity Ganon no longer plagued it.

-o-o-o-o-

It had been months since a mishap, so when she approached the Gerudo Fortress, she was sure that they would kick her out. This was it. This was the big test. The Gerudo only allow women into their town, Link had been in a few times out of necessity as a man, dressed as a vai, but that was for the sake of getting to Vah Naboris quickly, with no way of telling when the pink scrap would come out or if they would even let her in. 

It didn’t feel right to pretend, to force. But it was necessary, the stakes were more important than the discomfort of being a man in women’s clothes.

But now… now that she was truly a woman, she had to test it. 

She was dressed in her blue champion’s tunic, Hylian pants, and her hair was pulled up into a bun with braids trailing up into it. It was evening, so it wasn’t too hot or too cold, it was the perfect time to try and walk in… or get kicked out… without having to lie about her gender or dress dramatically like it.

The guards eyed her as she approached and she sucked in a breath. 

Just so it.

What if they kick her out?

Just so it.

She doesn’t want to be kicked out while she’s an actual girl.

Just do it. Rip it off like a bandage and do it.

She let out her breath.

And walked past them.

“Welcome, little vai,” one Gerudo said, smiling away towards the horizon, as if she’d known the whole time.

-o-o-o-o-

Link never realized that the final memory was right by the Kara Kara Bazaar until after Vah Naboris was released from Calamity Ganon’s control. Link was a man at the time, though at the very end they were genderless. The first time Link had seen her past self change. She saw it in their stance, in the way their face shifted naturally into something different. It was liquid, not rushed or thought too much into. Nothing about them changed, nothing but the gender. No personality, no values, nothing but the gender. 

As fluid and ever changing as a river. 

-o-o-o-o-

Nothing was revealed with the “memory” of the Master Sword. The Deku tree told him nothing. 

But there was a revelation at the real final memory, the one of his death. 

As he watched it, he realized he could not remember what gender he was during it. At the moment, it didn’t seem to matter. Link… was _Link _back then. Just a fighter, a knight, and what they identified as did nothing to help Link fight against all odds to make sure Zelda survived. 

Link died with a bracelet on, but it didn’t mean anything. It was singed black with the blast that dealt the final blow. Noticed by no one as Zelda quickly took it off as the Kakariko soldiers carried the body away.

-o-o-o-o-

It was time. After… months of traveling and helping and self discovering, it was finally time. He’d been in the castle before, to get one of the most dangerous memories he could possibly get, and then he left rather quickly after that, choosing to train more than risk going in further. Now, he was back. 

He took his time. Something gave him the feeling that while Zelda had waited long enough, she also could wait a little while longer. There was something important he wanted to check. He knew where Zelda’s laboratory was, he just had to find her bedroom. He got the feeling… he got the feeling Zelda left him something there.

It thankfully wasn’t hard to find. It wasn’t hard to get rid of the monster within it either, he’d grown strong over the months, both in mind and body, so it was of very little effort to get himself alone with the book placed on a desk. 

The read was… emotional, but what really got him was the note hastily scribbled in on the back page. 

“In the middle drawer,” it said, “and thank you. I’m counting on you. Sorry I couldn’t find the others. We can look for them together once Hyrule is safe.”

He carefully opened the middle drawer of the dresser… and found nothing but a single, singed, black beaded bracelet. 

Link slipped it on and put the blue scrap in his pack with the others. Right now, the hero stepping in to save the world was Link. There had been a whole lot of ups and downs, but Link believed it would only get better, once Ganon was no more, once Hyrule was safe, once Zelda was relieved of her one hundred year battle. But first, it’s time for Link to be a hero.

And that would never change.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I got a lot of positive feedback on Tumblr with this fic so I decided to throw it up on AO3. This will be the beginning of a series, and I recommend you all go to @linkeduniverse on tumblr because future interactions will involve her au Links at some point in time. Thanks for reading!!!


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